An expert spoke about the in-demand specialists in IT

The IT labor market is in constant dynamics and undergoing changes, including in terms of demand for specialists. The need for employees with a unique combination of skills is steadily growing. Evgeny Sokolov, head of the Department of Big Data and Information Retrieval at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, told Izvestia on February 9.

"In recent years on the IT market we see a significant and unceasing growth of interest in specialists with so-called cross-skills. Companies need specialists who combine deep knowledge of computer science with expertise in other areas. For example, the fintech segment needs specialists who understand both machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence. - Ed.) and financial disciplines. Specialists at the intersection of areas are needed in development, recruitment, medicine, law, retail and e-commerce - and this is just the beginning of the list," - said the expert.

According to him, employers need specialists who possess technical skills, understand the specifics of a particular subject area, which will allow them to set quality tasks and effectively interact with related teams.

He also noted that data engineering is currently being emphasized. Companies are striving to create a quality process for collecting, storing, processing and analyzing data.

"As a result, the demand for data engineers and consequently their salaries are increasing. We're seeing an increase in interest among undergraduate students in the online computer science and data analytics program, with freshman enrollment up 103% since 2021, and the master's in big data analytics has 130 students enrolled in 2024, making it one of the most popular programs," Sokolov said.

In addition, the jump in interest in artificial intelligence means that more and more organizations want to experiment with it. Therefore, there is a growing demand for applicants who understand language and multimodal models and can create services based on them. Employers also have a growing interest in AI trainers - specialists who are involved in data partitioning and creating training sets for neural networks.

"It is also important for programmers, regardless of seniority, to learn to work with copilots - assistants in writing AI-based code, so as not to lose in the efficiency of their labor. These tools help to handle routine tasks faster, positively impacting business processes. We also see a high demand for AI education - for example, in the 2024/2025 admission campaign, the online campus of the National Research University Higher School of Economics had a record enrollment in the Artificial Intelligence program: 83% more students were enrolled than in 2023," Sokolov added.

In addition, he said that there is a certain trend with a demand for specialists who combine technical skills and knowledge from specific market areas. These are the ones who will be in demand in the coming years.

"With technology changing rapidly, it is important to build a career on a solid foundation. We don't know what methods in IT will be popular in 5, 10 or 20 years' time. But we are confident that the foundation of any new technologies will remain math and the fundamental principles of computer science. With this knowledge, specialists will be able to adapt to any changes in the future," Sokolov concluded.

Earlier, on January 21, co-owner and managing partner of Technonikol Sergey Kolesnikov expressed the opinion that the process of robotization, automation in industry will continue at an increased pace. Robotization engineers, ACS engineers, electronic engineers who work with all these challenges will be paid very good money. At the same time, process engineers in rare industries such as chemistry, as well as in narrow specialties, will also be in great demand.